Calandrella acutirostris
Hume's Short-toed Lark (Calandrella acutirostris) is a small, cryptically plumaged songbird, measuring approximately 13-15 cm in length with a wingspan of 26-30 cm. Its upperparts are a sandy-brown to grey-brown, intricately streaked with dark brown, providing exceptional camouflage against rocky, barren terrain. The underparts are whitish, with a clean throat and a distinctive dark, crescent-shaped patch on the sides of the upper breast or neck, often a key field mark. It possesses a short, ...
This lark inhabits arid and semi-arid montane steppes, rocky plateaus, and high-altitude grasslands, typically breeding above 3,000 meters in stony semi-deserts.
Its diet primarily consists of insects like beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and ants during the breeding season, supplemented with various seeds from grasses and weeds, especially in winter.
Hume's Short-toed Lark is a diurnal, primarily ground-dwelling bird. It forages by gleaning insects and seeds from open ground, often probing in loose soil. Males establish territories with impressive 'song flights,' ascending steeply, hovering, and then descending in a parachute-like fashion whi...
Hume's Short-toed Lark has a widespread breeding range across Central Asia, extending from eastern Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, eastward through the Pamir, Tian Shan, Altai, and Kunlun mountains. Its distribution continues through the Himalayas, encompassing Pakistan, Indi...
Least Concern
- Named after Allan Octavian Hume, a British ornithologist and civil servant who extensively studied Indian birds. - Breeds at some of the highest altitudes of any songbird, regularly found above 4,000 meters and recorded as high as 5,500 meters. - Its cryptic, streaky brown plumage provides supe...